Rhode Island has a new investment management resource.
Wakefield-based Frazier Investment Management, founded by University of Rhode Island graduate Steven Frazier, looks to utilize modern tools and strong interpersonal relationships to help clients succeed financially.
"We believe that a transparent, progressive, and collaborative process delivers exceptional results," its website states.
For Frazier, his rth to creating his own firm began during his years at other local agencies, such as North Sails in Portsmouth and Stifel Financial Corp. During that time, he found that the kind of clients he enjoyed working with the most were entrepreneurs and small business owners, "people who had basically built their own businesses," Frazier said.
On his own time, he began researching what he could best do to serve those clients, who he said are more unique than the typical investor. This work helped him realize the amount of wonderful Rhode Island-based business connections he had made, and that it was time to leverage those and create his own firm. Frazier Investment Management was born.
The company specializes in advising entrepreneurs, businesses and other clients with anything from opening a 401k to navigating investment procedures and other elements of financial planning. Meetings happen face-to-face or online, depending on whether or not the client is local.
Oftentimes, customers meet with Frazier that way.
"A lot are traveling the country working on their laptops," he said. "The point is: I'm really taken to also think modernly about their business style and what the modern office looks like."
"Deciding what the best plan, both investment-wise and account type-wise, for them and for their business is DEFINITELY our strongest attribute."
Upon meeting them where they feel comfortable, Frazier uses a mixture of technology and personal connection to help them achieve their goals. Helping clients succeed financially is paramount to Frazier, who said the most common problem he finds with entrepreneurial clients is that they don't get as many monetary returns as they ought to be.
"We have constantly run into entrepreneurs [who] either sold their business or are finally making money, and not using their resources in a tax-deductible fashion, to their benefit," he explained. "If there’s one thing that would kind of be a goal of mine is to educate people to keep the money they have earned as opposed to being taxed on it, because we see the mistake over and over again."
This kind of insight is what Frazier says sets his firm apart.
"Deciding what the best plan, both investment-wise and account type-wise, for them and for their business is definitely our strongest attribute," he continued.
It doesn't hurt that Frazier works hard to think outside the box.
"I believe firmly that [it's important] to see a side of the client experience that I think the average advisor doesn't," he said. "I started my job off in the great recession and seeing ... a significant downturn in the markets — from both the tech side and the entrepreneur side — [gave me] a more related perspective and forward-thinking perspective on a classic problem.
On the docket for Frazier and company?
"Expand our footprint locally, and add advisors around the country," he said.
